Valor of the Lionhearted
by JokersMaze
Summary: You're quite a peculiar class, aren't you? Very well then. Greetings, dear children. My name is Monotori and starting today, I shall be your new headmaster! Ah, my apologies, I'm afraid you won't be attending classes. Instead, feel free to entertain yourselves with your new lives of mutual killing! Rating will likely be changed to M. [SYOC Closed] [Rewrite of Aegis of Despair]
1. Prologue

_Prick._

_The needle easily pierced the skin of the unconscious student laying on the medical table. The figure holding the syringe let out a quiet sigh, firmly pushing down on the plunger and injecting the syringe's contents into the student's bloodstream before standing up and making their way over to a container which housed two lonely needles._

_"One more," the figure muttered, reaching down and picking up the cylindrical object. "Just one more."_

_They made their way over to another unconscious student and repeated the procedure, sticking the thin needle into the student's forearm and depressing the needle's contents into the student's bloodstream. They had done this for each of the fifteen students, all of which were passed out on medical tables arranged in a circle around the center of the room. There was a sixteenth medical table that was currently unoccupied._

_"Done." the figure sighed quietly. "Now for me..."_

_"You'll be injecting yourself as well?" A monochrome bird asked. The figure nodded, to which the strange bird responded by tilting its head to the side. "I must say, your courage is admirable, dear child."_

_The figure did not respond. They merely made their way back over to the container and picked up the last needle before laying down on the empty medical table. _

_"Monotori. Do me a favor?" they asked. "Could you dispose of this needle after I pass out?"_

_"As you wish, dear child." Monotori replied, bowing his head._

_"Thank you."_

_With everything taken care of, the figure took the last syringe and plunged it into their forearm, feeling the substance enter their system as they pushed down on the injector. Suddenly, they felt very, very tired. It was a temporary effect of the drug, they knew, but they couldn't help the feeling of uneasiness that crept into the back of their mind. As the figure's eyes fluttered shut, their consciousness slowly drifted away._

_The empty syringe rolled out of their relaxed hand and Monotori flew over, snatching the cylindrical object out of the air before it could clatter onto the floor. The clockwork bird then carelessly tossed it out of an open window in the room. These lands were not inhabited, at least, not anymore. It mattered not where the used needle landed._

_Fate worked in strange ways, Monotori realized; the class arranged in front of him was nothing like what he had been expecting, but he found that he'd taken a liking to them just the same. It was early in the morning, dawn to be precise. The sky was illuminated a vibrant array of colors by the rising sun, and there were only a few wispy clouds in the sky. In a few hours, the sixteen students would awaken…_

_… and begin their new lives of mutual killing._

* * *

_Updated Class Roster taken from Aegis of Despair:_

_- Nakahara Natsume (JokersMaze)_

_- Chiyoko Fukui (Tyrant Rave V2)_

_- Kurorouki Kenta (Neisan Rimu)_

_- Saiga Kaoru (FourthMind)_

_- Sakuya Iramine (Paku159)_

_- Akane Hiraga (LostInTheBeats) **[NEW]**_

_- Masumi Hitsugi (The Utter Happenstance)_

_- Iino Rie (DarkRubySparks) **[NEW]**_

_- Daniel Hallow (Munamana)_

_- Tanade "Shide" Shigure (CrimsonSkyTamer) **[NEW]**_

_- Kazuki Tatsu (Shadowplayer360)_

_- Ryou Fujioka (pikachushinx)_

_- Silviya Borisov (SuperHighSchoolLevel Eater) **[NEW]**_

_- Hisao Sakimura (PartyAtTrois)_

_- Nanako Iwasaki (wmsm5ever)_

_- Taro Kirashiki (Viner16)_


	2. Act 1-1: Our Last Recollections

_My name is Nakahara Natsume and I am the SHSL Archivist._

Natsume bolted upright on the medical table, her breathing quick and panicked. Looking around at her surroundings, she saw fifteen other teenagers of a similar age waking up nearby. The sixteen of them were sitting on medical tables arranged into a circle around the center of the room.

The room they were in was simple. It was small, with cabinets lining the two side walls and a few large windows on the back wall of the room. Two wooden double doors remained closed at the front of the room. A strange mechanical bird was perched in front of them.

_What the hell is that, a toy? _Natsume thought, clutching her head with one hand. She suddenly became aware of a terrible aching in her head. Her mind felt cloudy, her thoughts unclear.

Some of the other kids had already gotten up and were looking around the room, throwing questions back and forth between one another. Others were still laying on their tables, glancing around and trying to comprehend the situation.

Natsume took a few deep breaths, moving her hand up to rub the drowsiness out of her eyes. Instead of feeling the expected skin of her eyelid, she felt a thin cloth over the place of her left eye. Natsume frantically patted her face, blinking and shifting her eyes around to confirm her fears. Sure enough, she could only see out of her right eye.

_When did I lose my eye? _Natsume felt the cloth once more. It was a bandana, tied around her head to serve as an eyepatch. _… I can't remember. Why can't I remember?_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a long, awestruck whistle. Standing at one of the windows was a girl with snow white curls, her hair tied into a side ponytail and a white leopard print scarf around her neck. Her attire consisted of a white sundress with a pair of pearl-colored high heels that were embellished by red roses near the straps. The silver bangles around her wrist jingled noisily as she turned away from the windows to face the others.

"This is quite a view we have," she remarked, gesturing to the abandoned cityscape outside. "It looks pretty desolate though."

A tall boy who had already been standing up made his way over to the window. He looked down, shielding his eyes from the light with one hand, then almost instantaneously backed away once he had seen what was outside. "Wh-whoa."

The girl frowned. "Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. His reddish-brown hair was styled into a short mohawk and he wore an unbuttoned black dress shirt over a white tank top and jeans.

"Sorry," he said quickly, looking to her. "We're just really high up, that's all."

"Afraid of heights?" another girl asked. The boy nodded in response.

By now, all sixteen of the kids had woken up. Some were up and about, like the girl and the boy at the window, but most were still sitting on their tables lost in their own thoughts. Natsume blinked, unable to rid herself of the uneasy feeling settling itself deep in her chest. _I can't remember anything._

Someone cleared their throat from the other side of the room.

"I believe that's everyone," the charming voice said. The children looked frantically around the room, trying to pinpoint the source of the voice. Some looked up at the ceiling panels, searching for tape recorders or an intercom system. "Nono! Over here! Honestly, where are all of you dear children looking?"

A monochrome bird- the one that Natsume had seen earlier- sat upon a wooden perch near the front of the room. Its head was curiously tilted to the side and it peered at the children with two different eyes. One eye was a cutesy black dot while the other was a strange design that glowed a fiendish red. The rest of its raven-sized body was roughly half-white and half-black.

"Greetings, dear children!" it said, bowing deeply. Judging by its voice, Natsume assumed the creature to be a male. "Now that you've all awoken, I believe proper introductions may begin. My name is Monotori, and starting today, I shall be your new headmaster!"

A few of the children opened their mouths to protest, but Monotori quickly continued. "Ah, no, I'm afraid you shan't be attending classes here. However, feel free to entertain yourselves with your new lives of mutual killing!"

"Mutual… _killing_?" A boy in glasses asked. All of the children in the room stared intently at the clockwork animal.

Monotori nodded. "Indeed, dear child! All sixteen of you are to live out the rest of your wretched lives atop of these skyscrapers! Although, I must admit: there is _one _way in which you may depart..."

"How?" A timid boy with freckles and a sun hat asked.

"Kill one of your classmates and get away with it!" the bird said simply. "Fool your classmates into believing that someone else was the murderer, and you'll be free as a bird!"

He chuckled a bit at his own pun. "Of course, this would mean that all of your classmates would be swiftly punished in your place, but that would mean nothing to a murderer anyways."

"You're _joking_, right?" Hopping off of the counter he had been sitting on, a black haired boy wearing a long black coat strode up to the supposed headmaster. "How about you let us go before I turn you into scrap metal?!"

Not waiting for an answer, the brash student threw a heavy punch at Monotori. The monochrome bird merely slackened his grip on the stand and allowed himself to fall backwards, dodging the attack.

"My, my," the bird said, hanging upside-down. "You're an impatient one, aren't you? Wouldn't you like to hear what I have to offer as a _bonus _for graduating? That's the official term for escaping by the way: graduation."

With a flutter of his wings, he righted himself on his perch and continued, "As many of you dear children have noticed, your memories are _gone. _They've vanished, been stolen; poof! Just like that! All you've retained are your names and talents, correct?"

Natsume nodded grimly. She saw several others doing the same with pale, frightened faces.

Monotori laughed triumphantly. "Consider this your first motive, dear children. If one of you commits a murder, you'll receive the memories of your dear families back!"

"And what happens if they don't get away with it?" someone asked. It was a girl with messy, neck-length black hair. There was some deviation of a rapier hanging from the left side of her belt.

"Then-" Monotori tilted his head to the side. "-said student shall be punished appropriately. Fret not; for the survivors, their crimes of the culprit shall still pay off. Even if a student fails to graduate, all of you will still receive the memories of your families after the trial."

A boy with messy black hair and a black hoodie seemed to perk up at the word, "trial".

"Trial? What trial?"

"Patience, dear child. All will be explained in due time. Now, I believe that is all for now. I will leave you to explore the-"

"Wait."

Sitting on one of the medical tables was a boy with tired, half-lidded eyes. His appearance was generally very disheveled, his black hair messy and unkempt. He wore a white, hooded jacket over a plain gray shirt and black cargo pants. In his hand was a PDA-like object about the size of a cellular phone.

"This was in my pocket. What is it?"

Monotori grinned in amusement. "My, my. So someone discovered it after all."

Natsume immediately reached into her pocket and felt around for a bit before pulling out the same device that the disheveled boy held in his hand. She tapped the screen and it lit up, displaying her name:

_Matsuri Natsume _

The archivist tapped the screen once more and it moved on to a menu with four options:

_Info  
Transcript  
Rules  
Map_

There was also a winged symbol labelled, "Monotori".

The feathery headmaster cleared his throat from the front of the room. "These convenient devices are your ElectroIDs, dear children. They're quite bothersome to replace, so do try and take good care of them."

Natsume tapped on the "Info" button. It brought her to a screen with a photo of her face and a form, most of which was blank.

_Name: Matsuri Natsume  
Talent: Archivist  
Age: ?  
Family/Loved Ones: ?  
Childhood: ?  
Hobbies: ?  
Likes: ?  
Dislikes: ?  
Secret: ?_

"Secret?" she inquired.

"Indeed, dear child! You and your fellow classmates have secrets that even you yourselves do not know."

The boy who had tried to attack Monotori earlier clenched his fists. "Bastard… I'll kill you!"

He drew his fist back to throw another punch at the bird, but felt a firm hand grab onto his wrist.

"Don't," a warning voice said. It was the girl with the rapier from earlier. Her ElectroID was in her other hand, held up for the boy to see. "Rule number two."

_2. Violence against the headmaster and the destruction of surveillance cameras is strictly prohibited. Breaking this rule will result in immediate punishment._

"Tch!" Shaking his hand loose, the boy turned away from the girl and lowered his fist. He continued to glare at Monotori, but didn't seem like he would be attacking anytime soon.

"Why, how lucky, dear child! Had your classmate not saved you, you would have perished before the game even started!" Monotori shook his head in mocking disappointment. Something glinted in the light as he moved, and the students quickly realized that his feathers partially consisted of _blades_.

"Very well then," Monotori hopped up and down a few times. "That will be all for now, dear children. You are free to explore the premises however you'd like, though I must warn you to take caution; falling from this height would certainly be... _unfavorable _for your physical conditions. Oh, and one final thing, dear children. If any of you were to take your own lives, a trial would still occur. It matters not to me if the victim is their own cause of death. The excuse of an _'accident'_ will not work on me either."

Monotori raised his head a bit. "You shan't escape so easily, dear children. Farewell for now."

As if on cue, the doors in front of Monotori threw themselves open. The clockwork creature flapped his wings and flew out of the room that they were gathered in. The doors shut tightly behind him, the students left to themselves. It was eerily silent for what felt like an eternity. Finally, the boy standing by the now-empty perch moved.

"Thanks." he said in a low voice, facing away from the girl who had saved him.

There was a flicker of confusion on the girl's face, but it was quickly replaced by a kind smile.

"It was my pleasure. I'm glad you're okay," She tapped on his shoulder and extended a hand towards him. "I'm Shide, by the way."

A slight blush appeared on the boy's face after seeing Shide's hand, although he still took the polite gesture after averting his gaze. "... Kurorouki Kenta."

"Oh, are we doing introductions now?" The scarfed girl by the windowside asked, smiling sweetly. "I'm Akane Hiraga. It's nice to meet you all."

"We could go around the circle, I guess," the mohawk boy said. Upon taking a closer look, Natsume noticed that there was a small silver piercing on his lower lip. "I'll go next. I'm Daniel Hallow. It's nice to meet you guys… well, not _really_, with this whole murder thing going on."

A silence settled upon the room. Someone cleared their throat awkwardly, and all the eyes in the room darted to the source of the noise, eager to break the gloomy feel of the meeting. The boy who had made the noise stiffened at all of the attention, as though immediately regretting his decision. He had short, messy blonde hair that was partially covered by a sunhat, and his white jacket was dirtied by what looked to be dirt. The blue t-shirt he wore underneath was absolutely spotless. For his pants, he wore a pair of ripped blue-jeans that had very obvious grass stains around the knees. His voice was friendly, albeit timid.

"R-Right. I'm Hisao Sakimura. From what I can remember, I'm the SHSL Gardener," He looked down at his attire. "Well, my clothes definitely match."

Hearing this, Natsume took the time to glance down at her own outfit. Aside from the eyepatch she had already noticed, she saw that she was wearing plain black suspenders over a tidy white dress shirt and black pants.

_Classy, _Natsume smirked. _At least I've got a good sense of style._

"What are you smirking at?" The harsh question was directed at Natsume from a girl on the other side of the circle. The girl's short black hair didn't quite reach her shoulders, and the glasses resting on her nose didn't do much to soften her piercing hazel gaze. Her clothes were simple but business-like: a beige blazer and skirt, and a pair of knee-high black boots.

"Didn't you hear me?" she asked again, eyes narrowed at the archivist. "I asked what you were smirking at."

Natsume stiffened.

"Jeez, the hell's your problem?" she scoffed back. "Nothing. I just thought of something, that's all."

"You _thought _of something?" the girl pressed. "Why don't you share? It might help with the situation we're in."

"Screw _off-_"

"Tell us your name, at least."

"Fuck, you're annoying!" Natsume let out a quiet sigh before begrudgingly meeting with the girl's demands. "Nakahara Natsume."

The girl smiled triumphantly. "There. Now that wasn't so hard, was it? I'm Chiyoko Fukui. It's nice to meet you, _Natsume_."

The corner of Natsume's mouth twitched. _I swear I'm gonna kill this bitch._

Someone laughed nervously from Natsume's side. "Whew. Tension's rising already, huh?"

There was a tall boy wearing a gray trenchcoat and jeans. His gloves and shoes were the same shade of black as his hair, which parted into bangs that framed his face. A carefree smile lit up his face, contrasting his dark brown eyes.

"I'm Kazuki Tatsu," He nodded to everyone. "Nice to meet you all."

A few people nodded back to him, but most merely stared on in silence. The introductions just felt… _strange_; they were supposed to kill each other, not... _socialize_.

"Let's just get this over with…" a boy muttered, adjusting his glasses. His unruly brown hair just barely reached the shoulders of his blue jacket, and underneath his jacket was a black button-up shirt and a pair of darkly-colored jeans. He seemed pretty skinny. "Ryou Fujioka. There. Next person, go."

A very formal-looking girl standing next to Fujioka grabbed the edges of her dress and curtsied to everyone gathered. There was lots of black on her, from her dress to her long hair side ponytail. The upper half of the soot-colored dress she wore was styled like a tuxedo's. Her skin was very pale, though her gentle movements and voice gave her a feel of elegance. On her back were a bow and quiver, the quiver filled with arrows. The sash looped around the front and hung loosely from her left shoulder.

"My name is Nanako Iwasaki. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintances."

"An archer?" Shide asked.

"Supposedly so."

"I'll go next," A girl with a black fashion cap gestured to herself, smiling behind her pink-lensed glasses. Her long blue hair fell in messy waves behind her and her outfit consisted of a hooded gray jacket over a purple shirt and blue jeans that were almost the same shade of blue as her hair. "Name's Iino Rie. Nice to meetcha all."

"Masumi Hitsugi." It was the boy who had asked Monotori about his ElectroID.

Natsume mentally counted the number of students left to introduce themselves. _Two… three… four… just four left. None of them seem like-_

"Hello! I'm Sakuya Iramine!"

_… right._

The boy who had just introduced himself seemed to like sheep an awful lot; a pair of sheep patterned headphones hung loosely around his neck. He was carrying a fluffy sheep plushie in his arms and his white shirt had a sheep on the front as well. Over his shirt was a sleeveless leather jacket which drooped slightly over his ripped blue jeans. The tips of his hair had been dyed blue, though it was clear that his hair was naturally black.

"Nice to meet you all. I hope we can be friends!"

Smirking, the boy next to him turned away from Iramine and looked to the crowd. His red hair jutted outwards at several places, though a black bang was neatly parted from the otherwise crimson tangles. His hands were hidden by red gloves which extended beneath the sleeves of his black hooded jacket and white shirt. On his lower half were a pair of white baggy jeans.

"I'm Saiga Kaoru," he said promptly. "That's all I'll say."

"Not very talkative, are you?" another unnamed boy asked cheerily. His wavy black hair looked as though it hadn't been combed in months- _years, _even- and his large black hoodie had a strange grinning face on the front. His baggy beige pants and strangely enthusiastic brown eyes didn't help his unkempt look. "The name's Taro Kirashiki! I guess I'm the SHSL Reporter. Hmm…" He looked at Kaoru. "You wouldn't be any good in an interview, y'know!"

A few students laughed at his unexpected enthusiasm, holding their hands up to their mouths in an attempt to stiffle their outbursts. Amongst one of the students laughing softly was a girl whose light blonde hair appeared almost silver in the light. Her hair fell to her chest, partially obscuring the top of her lavender, short-sleeved blouse and making her seem rather reserved. For pants, she wore simple khaki pants that just slightly covered the back of her plain black loafers. Most notable of all was the black cape that hung on her back, swirling around whenever she moved.

"My name is Silviya Borisov. Everyone, it is a pleasure to meet you."

Silviya bowed politely as she finished her short introduction. She had been the last of the sixteen to introduce herself.

"So," Rie began. "What now?"

"Well, we could go for a nice walk, get some coffee…" Daniel offered sarcastically. "We find a way to get out of here of course!"

"Where should we start then?" Hiraga asked.

"Let's just go outside and take a look around," Shide said, opening up the doors leading outside. "We should get our bearings before we decide to do anything else. Our ElectroIDs have maps, but I still think we should check everything out so we know what's available to us. Sound good?"

Most of the students nodded.

"Then," Natsume cracked her knuckles. "Let's go."


End file.
